There was a parade this morning at Franklin Square to celebrate Emancipation Day — not that anyone much noticed, what with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit taking up all the attention. But indeed today is an important District-wide holiday, as it was on this day in 1862 that President Abraham Lincoln freed over 3,000 slaves in the District with the declaration of the Compensated Emancipation Act, which came eight months before slaves were freed throughout the nation. Here’s what the act said:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District.

Since many of the usual Emancipation Day activities and celebrations, such as a big voting rights march, were canceled this year due to the Pope being in town, here’s what you probably really need to know: many D.C. government agencies are closed today, and you won’t be getting any parking tickets from the city, so feel free to ignore those street cleaning schedules to your heart’s content.